MOBILE, AL – When Arkeem and Tibias were growing up, their brotherly love was always a special bond between them. At nearly four years younger, Tibias was the “baby” of the family and would often rely on his bigger brother for help on anything and everything. To his credit, Arkeem was a fond older brother who went out of his way to take care of Tibias. And today, as they tour the country under their stage name Pine Grove Boys, not much has changed.

The hip-hop duo from Mobile, Alabama has a distinct sound that blends their southern drawl with upbeat, inspiring lyrics. And though Tibias – AKA Ay Bias – still laughingly refers to himself as the “crybaby” of the relationship, he also still looks up to his big brother and knows how incredible of an opportunity it is to get to make music with Arkeem – AKA Keemy.

“Growing up with Keemy, he always babied me and I’d get my way,” Bias said. “But he also always knew what to say to make me feel better, and that’s still true today. We’ve never had a falling out or an argument. We’ve had disagreements, but that’s just life. When we’re up there on stage with each other, it takes two minutes and we’re in the zone and laughing and grooving. He’s a friend and a brother, and I believe our music and our style helps people to know that you only have one life to live, so have fun! Our music is just straight fun.”

Perhaps the best example of that is their most recent single “Rock Wit Me,” which continues to receive increasing amounts of radio play all across the country and has garnered the duo a Hip-Hop Song of the Month award in California. According to Keemy, the song has a hip-hop and pop fusion feel that’s mixed with EDM.

“It’s more of a dance song,” he said. “You hear it and you can’t help but dance. It’s a great example of the kind of music we make together when we’re just feeding off each other. I’ve been in the game longer than my brother and I have more experience, so I feel like I have a little bit of an edge when it comes to finding beats or hooks for a song. But at the same time I feel like he’s better than me at punch lines and being lyrical. Ultimately at the end of the day it’s very collaborative and back-and-forth working off each other.”

Keemy said all of their music is up-tempo and uplifting. Coming from a family who spent every Sunday in church and through which they were introduced to music via the choir, both Keemy and Bias feel strongly about creating music that breaks away from the negativity that flows through a lot of today’s hip-hop music.

“We want kids as little as five years old to be able to listen to our music and have fun with it,” Keemy said.

“A lot of artists today sound the same, but what we do is very different,” Bias added. “From the beat to the lyrics to everything – it’s just different. We aren’t going to pretend to be somebody we’re not. We’re very different from the rest of the hip-hop world, but in a good way. Our music is the kind of music that makes you want to get up and go something. If you’re feeling bad, you want to put in Pine Grove Boys and it’ll get you lifted up.”

Fans who want to check out some of the music from PGB can visit their Soundcloud page, or follow them on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for updates about new releases or live performances.